Only a few weeks before Donald Trump hit 53% in a national poll, the mainstream media – and even Marco Rubio – were claiming that most GOP voters hate him.

It was right after Super Tuesday in particular when the anti-Trump media was downplaying Trump’s major victories by declaring that the three other candidates got more votes combined, ignoring the fact that the same could be said about any of the candidates.

“…Indeed, once again, most voters voted against Trump, not for him, and that’s where reality-show tactics come in,” National Review’s Jonah Goldberg declared on March 4.

Other media pundits made near-identical statements:

“Trump’s weakness may be that in most cases he is restricted to about a third of the vote,” David Thornton of Practical Politicking claimed. “Roughly two-thirds of Republicans have consistently voted against Trump, and Real Clear Politics polling shows that this seems to be holding true in most upcoming primaries.”

And Red State’s Leon Wolf asserted that “Trump’s base of 35% support looks pretty invincible, but the base of Trump’s opposition at about 65% also looks pretty invincible.”

Not surprisingly, Marco Rubio same nearly the same thing:

“Donald Trump – 65% of the people who voted, voted against him, and that’s the problem he has,” he said March 2. “He can never bring this party together.”

“There will never be a time when our supporters are asking us to make way for Donald Trump.”

Actually, that time might be now: Trump is now at 53% among likely Republican primary voters according to a new poll, which also found that Rubio is the least liked of all the remaining GOP candidates.

“The week’s Economist/YouGov Poll finds Trump still at the top of GOP voters’ preference with a wider lead, while Florida Senator Marco Rubio seems most damaged by the two weeks of attacks and counter-attacks,” YouGov reported. “This is the first time Trump has garnered the support of a majority of Republican primary voters nationwide.”